Numerous types of apparatus and vehicles for hauling both waste and recyclable materials are well known, as disclosed in the following: U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,425,070; 4,480,531; 4,915,570; 1,180,292; 1,650,249; 2,454,101; 2,592,324; 3,520,428; 4,273,497; 4,538,951; 4,552,500; 4,597,710; 3,865,260; 4,113,125; and 3,083,849. In addition, a variety of waste and recyclable material collecting and hauling apparatus is shown in the following foreign patent documents: Great Britain 263,726 and 670,253; Germany 206,781 and 3,537,546; EPO 314,238; and Canadian 1,264,702.
Generally, devices and vehicles intended to collect and haul waste or garbage are not suitable for collecting and hauling recyclable materials. Waste collecting and hauling devices and vehicles typically contain a single volume or compartment in which all collected materials are contained. It is generally desirable when collecting and hauling recyclable materials to maintain different materials in different compartments, although at times, it is acceptable to commingle some recyclable materials. For example, depending on local practices, it is often acceptable to commingle glass, plastic and aluminum recyclable materials with each other, but to segregate those three materials from paper and newsprint. Thus, a waste or garbage collecter which loads its single compartment with collected materials from a single bucket through a single opening at or near the top of the compartment is generally unsuitable for collecting recyclable materials.
Where special vehicles for collecting recyclable materials are used, they typically have two or more separated volumes or compartments into each of which specific recyclable materials are placed. In theory, vehicles for collecting recyclable materials could have one compartment for each type of recyclable material. For example, where the recyclable materials being collected include glass, plastic, aluminum and paper, the vehicle could contain four compartments each filled through a top opening by an associated bucket, or by a single bucket divided into separated bins, with one bucket or bin being associated with each compartment. See, for example, German patent application 3,537,546, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,840,531 and 4,113,125, as well as European patent 314,238.
Commonly assigned '172 application, referred to above, represents an attempt to provide a recyclable material collecter and hauler which is simple and efficient to operate, which minimizes worker effort and which renders the collection of recyclable materials efficient and expeditious. The invention of the '172 application includes a body carried by a vehicle frame. The body is separated into two interior compartments by an interior wall. One class of recyclable materials is intended to be placed in one compartment while a second class of recyclable materials is intended to be placed in the other compartment. A side-loading bucket is located near the front of the body and close to the egress and ingress points of the vehicle's cab. The bucket is vertically movable along a lateral side of the body from a lower loading position to an upper dumping position whereat material within the bucket is dumped through openings at the top of the body and into the compartments. In preferred embodiments, the bucket is divided into separated bins by a wall. When the bucket reaches the dumping position at the upper point of its travel, it is tilted to align the bins with the openings, which are longitudinally spaced at the top of the body, to thereby dump the recyclable materials in each bin through the openings and into the compartments. In its lower loading position, the bucket is conveniently located low to the ground and, as noted, close to the cab of the vehicle so that it may be easily, quickly and efficiently loaded with recyclable material by workers who ride in the vehicle's cab or on the outside thereof.
The bucket of the '172 application is located and vertically moves within a recess formed in the body. This construction permits the bucket to have only three sidewalls and a bottom wall, with the exterior, lateral sidewall of the recess forming or acting as the fourth or back sidewall of the bucket. The absence of the fourth sidewall from the bucket permits the bucket to be minimally rotated at the upper dumping position for expeditious dumping of materials into the compartments. Thus, the low loading height and location of the bucket lead to convenient filling thereof the lack of a back wall of the bucket within the recess leads to low spillage and minimizes wind-caused scattering of the contents thereof.
In the '172 application, a hoist mechanism raises and lowers the bucket, and, in response to bucket travel upwardly and downwardly, doors on the top of the body open and close the openings.
While the hoist for raising and lowering the bucket of the '172 application is generally satisfactory from an operational standpoint, it has been determined that its operation could be simplified and its cost could be lowered.
Each compartment in the device of the '172 application contains a compactor or packing blade for compacting materials therein. In preferred embodiments the packing blades operate alternately so that when one is extended and compacting the other is retracted and not compacting.
In many communities today where recyclable materials are collected and later processed it is recognized that glass, aluminum and plastic waste may be commingled, but, as commingled, must be kept separate from paper such as newsprint. It is believed by many that it is far less expensive to sort glass, plastic and aluminum recyclable materials at a central collection location or recycling center than it is to do so during the collection process.
Where glass is commingled with other materials, it has been determined that it is generally desirable to minimize the breakage thereof so that what is ultimately deposited at a central collection location or recycling center has minimal broken glass therein. This minimization of glass breakage requires a consideration of both the ramifications of compacting the commingled materials within the body and what occurs at the time the commingled materials are placed into their respective compartments and dumped from these compartments. Similar attention, it has been determined, must be paid to segregating the commingled materials from paper and newsprint during both loading operations and dumping operations.
An additional consideration regarding plastic-containing materials is so-called "plastic springback." This phrase refers to the tendency of plastic, once compacted, to spring back to its original volume as the compacting force is removed. Should this occur after commingled materials are placed in a compartment of a collecting and hauling vehicle, it may be difficult or impossible to add additional commingled materials to the compartment--the relevant opening thereof may be blocked or partially blocked or the compartment may be "filled" with uncompacted plastic--without reinstituting compaction. This step requires time and slows down the material collection process.
A primary object of the present invention is the general improvement of the recyclable material collecting and hauling vehicle shown in the '172 application, as well as the provision of solutions for the above noted and other problems and the avoidance of shortcomings found in numerous prior art collecting and hauling vehicles.